News

NATO Members to Form Coalition to Defeat ISIS

9/8/2014

AFA Caption

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, center, Secretary of State John
Kerry, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, right, have a
lighthearted conversation prior to the start of a multilateral Iraqi
support meeting during the NATO summit in Wales, Sept. 5, 2014. DOD
photo by Glenn Fawcett.

BodyText

NATO allies and
partners meeting at the alliance summit in Wales agreed to form a broad
international coalition to counter the ISIS terrorist threat to Iraq, the
Middle East, and Western nations, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary
of State John Kerry said Friday. “We and the ministers agreed today that there
is no time to waste in building a broad international coalition to degrade and,
ultimately, to destroy the threat posed by [ISIS],” the two Secretaries said in
a joint
statement. They called the formation of an inclusive government in Iraq a
“critical step,” saying they hoped that would be completed shortly and the
allies would join in supporting it. Among the united steps to defeat ISIS that
the allies discussed were: military support to Iraqi partners, which probably
includes Kurdish forces; stopping the flow of foreign fighters; countering ISIS’
funding sources; addressing the humanitarian crises, and de-legitimizing ISIS’
ideology, the statement said. “We agreed today that NATO allies in particular
should work in concert toward these goals,” they said. The Secretaries said it
would “require a unified approach at the international, regional, and local
levels combining military, law enforcement, intelligence, economic, and
diplomatic tools” to defeat ISIS.